The greenhouse effect is accelerating the global water cycle almost twice the rate predicted by climate change models.

Global climate models predict that as the globe warms, this will heat the lower atmosphere and enable it to hold more moisture, thus speeding up the global water cycle. This is like the rich getting richer while the poor is getting poorer, but with dry and wet areas.

Global warming increases salinity too, because the more rain that falls in the oceans, the more freshwater dilutes out salinity, the more evaporation there is, the higher the ocean’s salinity.

People trapped by rising floodwaters in Bundaberg, Australia are being rescued by helicopter crews.

Many people are trapped on roofs, but there are fears that homes could be washed away by fast-moving waters after the Burnett river burst its banks. Three peoploe have already died in the flooding after a cyclone.

At least 1200 properties have flooded and about 1500 people could still be in need of rescue.